Recently I discovered this quite unbelievable fact…

Back in 2004 a group of excited Nokia engineers created a new kind of phone.

It was internet ready, with a big colour touchscreen display and a high-resolution camera.

The Nokia engineers had another brilliant idea, an online app store to go with the phone.

Nokia’s leadership team (who had previously been lorded for pioneering the first cellular network and the first widely used GSM phone) shot down both projects.

Three years later the engineers saw their brilliant idea turn up on a San Francisco stage, when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.

In just 5 years Nokia went from selling half the smartphones on the planet and the most valuable company in Europe to irrelevance.

Nokia sold its mobile business in 2013, and between its market peak to its exit, Nokia’s value dropped by a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Why did this happen?

Unfortunately, their previously innovative leadership team had become safe and complacent, thinking they had the market secure and no further innovation in mobile technology was required.

What’s the moral of this story?

In business you’ve always got to be moving forward and innovating to keep ahead or at least on a par with your competitors.

It doesn’t always have to be ground-breaking innovation, continuous improvements to your existing products and service counts as innovation too.

Were constantly looking for ways, our products can better serve our customers and the environment around us, through using fit for purpose refurbished equipment, creating affordable fixed payment plans and providing simple risk free rolling monthly agreements.

…don’t get complacent and think no one can top what you offer, like Nokia did!